"If a movie was good in it's original version, I have always wondered why Hollywood thought they could improve on it by doing a new version with different actors."

Any number of really good reasons, if you ask me.

1.the story's the thing Lots of good stories can use a fresh interpreation. I would completely re-do the Moses of Heston into a real person.

2. 'tain't the stage no more A good friend of mine and I discussed this one time --- Neither of us likes the actors who are the accepted "immortals" of Hollywood. They were stage actors, but that training almost necessarily made them, to my taste, almost unwatchably over-actors on the screen.

It is refreshing to see conversation that comes across as conversation -- not projected or accented, dahling.

3. The Speilberg Affect Special effects can profoundly change the nature and enjoyability of a movie. It's as profound a change as the change from the Academy (french and too far past in my art history training!) of David to the impressionist style of Monet.

As a piece of art, both are valid. The emphasis is changed.